Realspiritik

Yeah, right, so I'll just be placing my order for that sleek black Beemer. Now why didn't I think of that before?

Aletheia, your poor thing -- yikes! I'm thinking about you, and hoping you can find the right support team to help you recover from this. And hey -- if you have a minute, could you fill me in on what "prosperity gospel" is? Apparently there are a lot of branches of theology (if you can call it that) that I still need to learn about. God be with you. Love Jen

P.S. I just realized I've made this thread too serious for the Cafe site, so if anybody wants to discuss it further, perhaps we could start a thread in Debate & Dialogue? Sorry about that. Jen

Wow. I don’t know what to say. I base my work on up-to-the minute research. I don’t think this site is the place to get into a nitty gritty debate about specific research papers, but I’d like to comment in a general way on the dualistic approach to the human body that’s so prevalent in our society today. Gajillions of individuals still think of the body and the mind as two different substances which are only vaguely related to each other in some ill-defined way. I honestly can’t comment on Christian Science teachings, because I know nothing about them. But I do know how powerfully my own emotions affect my physical body. I do know that for 20 years I suffered from ulcerative colitis, and I do know that taking the right medications, eating the right foods, and taking loads of supplements did nothing to make my colitis go into remission. It only healed permanently when I left the stressful marriage I was in and took more responsibility for my own emotional choices. At the time I was dealing with the extreme discomfort (both physical and emotional) of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), part of me was aware that my body was reacting negatively to my emotions. My biggest problem was that, 15 or 20 years ago, I couldn’t figure out which were the problem emotions. I needed somebody with training and experience to help me. Part of me knew that if I found the right therapist, my colitis might improve. But you know what? I copped out on myself. I didn’t take that step. I made a whole bunch of excuses for why I couldn’t get counselling. That was my choice. I take full responsibility for that choice. As it turns out, of course, my half-thoughts were right – my emotions were the problem. When I took charge of understanding my emotional choices, guess what happened? My colitis slowly healed. Last month, I proudly donated blood for the first time since I was a young adult. They won’t let you donate blood when you have IBD, and then, after your IBD goes into remission, they make you wait a further 5 years just to be sure. I recently passed the five year mark. So as for the “blame the victim” thing, I just don’t buy it. Sure we all get dealt some crummy genes. Sure we all have accidents that leave us with broken bones, missing digits, or worse. But research proves that genes can be turned on and off by a whole host of factors, some of them emotional. And those who have to deal with the physical fallout from a serious accident or illness can either feel sorry for themselves (i.e. make themselves into victims) or they can try to work around whatever disability they’re left with and try to make the best of it. I imagine most of the readers on this site have some personal experience with this. I have great respect for the advances of western medicine. I think it’s awesome that we have so many medications (whether prescription or complementary) to help our bodies get back into the balanced state God intends. I would still be using my IBD medication if I needed it, but I don’t. I think it’s awesome what surgeons can do. I also think it’s obvious that no matter how much one tries to apply “will power” to a medical problem, will power can only go so far. The only part of the human experience anybody has full control over is their emotions (it takes a lot of effort, but it can be done). You can’t use will power to grow regrow severed spinal cord neurons. But you can use your will power to decide how you’re going to deal emotionally with the reality of being disabled. I’m not being cavalier about other people’s suffering. I’ve been through the worst ordeal a parent can go through – watching their beloved son die of cancer. Do I believe he got cancer because he was thinking “bad thoughts”? Good grief – he was 2 ½ years old. Of course not. Do I think he got cancer because his father and I were thinking “bad thoughts”? Nope. Do I think God could have healed him? I thought so at the time, as did the compassionate church community we belonged to, and if prayer alone would have done the trick, I imagine he’d be getting ready to go to university this fall instead of being the dearest memory of my heart. Do I still, today, after all I’ve learned, think God could have healed him? Yep. So why didn’t God heal my gorgeous blue-eyed, blond-haired angel? Because it was time for him to go Home. That’s the best answer I can give you. Sometimes life is a desert of pain, but what’re ya gonna do? Ya just gotta keep on truckin’. Love Jen

He's gorgeous! Congratulations to you and your wife. (Oops -- had to go back in an add an exclamation mark, because he really is gorgeous.)

Hi BeachofEden, Thanks for taking the time to explain your perspective on communion. I found it very helpful. Love Jen

Hi Aletheia, Hope you don’t mind a little input from a different perspective. I’m not a licenced physician. But in my work, I stick very closely to established scientific research. So I don’t make these observations rashly. The human brain (or, more properly the whole central nervous system) is still terra incognita for most clinicians. It’s really troubling to have a major medical problem like migraines and not be able to find anybody who can tell you why you’re having them. At least if you understood the origin of the problem, you could make more tailored choices to counteract the underlying physiological imbalance. You’ve tried the logical things like supplements, etc., without effect. So what’s left besides anti-seizure drugs? Well, there’s one other thing you can try in addition to the Topomax. I think the two approaches would complement each other well. Of course, it’s up to you and your physician whether or not you stay on the Topomax, but if it gives you some relief without serious side effects, then maybe it’s worth it. Migraines are caused when different parts of your brain give diametrically opposed messages to each other. One part of your brain is saying “push” while another part is saying “pull”. The part of your brain that’s supposed to put together the action plan (the cerebellum) can’t take the conflict. It sends out a message that it wants a clear choice one way or the other – and it uses pain to get your attention. The body has ingenious ways to get us to stop and listen to ourselves, whether we want to listen or not. Most migraine sufferers find they can’t shake the pain without resting quietly in a darkened room. So what your cerebellum is communicating to you is that it wants you to spend more time resting quietly. It can’t keep up with the demands you’re making on yourself. The brain needs a lot of quiet rest time to function properly. It also needs to be “fed” certain kinds of quantifiable brainwaves – the kind you see on an EEG, like alpha waves, which I’m sure you know a lot about. If the brain doesn’t get the chance to be soaked in alpha waves on a regular basis and get a chance to “relax” through alpha brainwave synchrony, it reacts like your car engine when you forget to put oil in it. The parts don’t flow smoothly. They begin to seize up – and isn’t it funny how we call a random misfiring of synchronous electrical current in the brain a seizure. You might want to check into biofeedback training to help you quickly master the use of alpha waves. Taking the time to feed your brain alpha energy is a hard thing to get used to if you’re a type A person who’s always thinking, planning, and on the go. But your body knows its limits. Hope this helps. Love Jen and Jesus

Hi Friends, It’s been a while since Jesus and I have posted. This morning, we wrote a long letter to a channelling student who’s having difficulty getting rid of her old feelings of victimhood. Like me, this student works in a close channelling partnership with her guardian angel, whom she can “see” and “hear” with a high degree of accuracy. For the purposes of this posting I’ve changed the names of the student (we’ll call her Susan) and her angel (we’ll call him John) to protect their privacy. Other than that, the letter is pretty self explanatory, and may perhaps add to your own understanding of your relationship with God. God be with you, Jen and Jesus *** Thank you for the letter you sent yesterday afternoon, Susan. That was an honest, heartfelt apology, and we accept. Tom and I have been talking about the “physics” of the 3-D ego circuit, and how it relates to your ongoing problem of “one step forward, three steps back”. As we try to explain this, please try to put it in the scientific context it belongs in. Thoughts are energy. Emotions are energy. It’s quantifiable energy like electrical energy or thermal energy (as from fire). One of the interesting laws of the 3-D dimension you and I currently live in is that energy can’t be destroyed, but it can change form. For instance, you can take thermal energy (fire), use it to boil water (still thermal energy), then use the steam to drive turbines, which convert the energy into electricity. You can’t make electricity out of thin air. You must take another, easier-to-get kind of energy and force it to change into a different kind of energy. It doesn’t happen spontaneously. Some choice or action must be applied to the energy to make it change forms, or it will stay exactly as it is. This is the scientific principle of inertia, the tendency of bodies in motion to keep moving in the same direction unless a force is applied to them. If you went into deepest, darkest space, somewhere between widely spread stars, and decided to throw a baseball as hard as you could, the baseball would keep going for thousands of years in whatever direction you threw it. There would be nothing to deflect it, to alter its natural inertia. If it got near a large planetary body or a sun, then gravity would kick in, and the ball would change course, because gravity is a force. Gravity applies energy to the ball. Gravity pulls the ball. Therefore, the ball will change course. Your ego circuit is like that baseball. A long time ago in your life as a dysfunctional human, you decided to throw that baseball as hard as you could. The energy you used to throw that ego-circuit-baseball was your will power. Your will power can be defined as the sum total of all your emotional choices. Since emotions carry energy, that energy can be used to power other things. In this case, the energy of your emotional choices is what your biological brain uses to power neurophysiological changes – i.e. what neurotransmitters you use and what neurons they communicate with. Your emotional energy choices are an energy source, no different than an electrical current or an open flame. You must remember this at all times. When you choose harmful thoughts and hurtful emotions, you are applying raw energy to certain parts of your brain. Your brain uses that energy to preserve the “trajectory” of the ego-circuit-baseball. Your brain uses this energy to counteract the energy that John applies to your brain in the form of forgiveness and love. John is using his divine love energy in the way that a star uses gravity – he is trying to gently pull you towards him. He is using his divine love energy to try to knock the baseball off its destructive course, and pull you back into the orbit of your soul’s true nature. The only way his healing program can be slowed down, even temporarily arrested, is for you to apply more energy to your ego-circuit-baseball than he is. If you “try hard” to resist the force created by his energy, if you try hard to resist his divine love, you are applying an actual, quantifiable, real energy. Your resistance is energy. It has real power. It creates real consequences. It’s not ever good enough for you to say to yourself, “Oh, it was just a thought, and thoughts don’t matter, because thoughts don’t have real energy. They’re just for show.” Au contraire. Thoughts are more powerful than any other energy in the universe. Here’s another problem: Energy is energy, and it always follows certain common sense rules. Let’s take the example of candles. Take a room that has three candles burning in it. Now take another room the same size with a hundred candles burning in it. Which room will be brighter? Which room will heat up faster? Obviously, the more candles, the more energy is being pumped into the room in the form of visible light energy (EMF) and thermal energy. Now, if you were suddenly assigned the task of snuffing out the candles in just one of the two rooms, and you knew you were going to be awarded a prized based on how quickly you performed this task, which room would you pick? Obviously, you’d choose to snuff out the three candles, because it takes much less energy and much less time to snuff out three candles than a hundred candles. When you, as a soul, have a big aura – and we know that you do – your room has a hundred candles in it, compared to some souls, who have the equivalent of three candles. To get back to being your best soul self, you have to apply enough energy from your own brain to relight all one hundred candles. Let us repeat – you have to apply enough energy from your own brain. In other words, you have to be especially diligent, and especially careful to make sure all your thoughts and all your emotions are directed towards the goal of relighting your one hundred candles. You have to work harder to get your brain back to normal compared to some people, because you have more candles to light. Those who have more candles will always be faced with this reality as human beings. The plus side, of course, is that once you get all those candles lit, you can be a powerhouse of love in the world. Every time you choose victimhood, you are applying sufficient energy to either dim some of your candles, or possibly extinguish some. (That’s where we get the phrase, “one step forward, three steps back”.) John is trying as hard as he can to use his considerable divine energy to help you light those candles, but baby, the truth is, he can’t do it by himself. He needs you to apply your own natural will power to this scientific task. In order for John to properly heal your brain, he needs you to contribute the right kind of raw energy. He needs you to contribute an intense desire to want to be your best self at all times. He needs you to be making a big pool of positive energy available to him, which he in turn can use to rewire your brain. Honey, he may be a wonderful mentor and a perfect angel, but no angel anywhere in the universe can create something out of nothing. He doesn’t use magic to rewire your brain. He uses energy. It’s simple physics. He simply doesn’t have enough energy yet to fully rewire your brain, because you keep draining the energy pool with your destructive victim choices! Here’s how it works: Each of your genuine soul thoughts generates quantifiable energy that John can use, if he so chooses, to help rewire your brain. Each ego-circuit-baseball thought also generates energy, but it’s energy that interferes with the good kind of energy. Ego-circuit energy sets up what’s called an interference pattern by physicists. Interference patterns quench wave patterns, literally suppress the natural wavelengths of flowing energy, and force the energy to stop doing whatever it was doing. To get the good energy going again, more energy must be supplied by somebody. So that means either John has to push even harder, or you have to push even harder. Guess which is the correct choice? We already know John is working as hard as he possibly can, and nobody can ask him to give more than his absolute everything (which, we repeat, he’s already givng.) That means it’s up to you, hon. It’s up to you to try harder. You have to try harder, and in that way help John. You have to try harder to give John the raw material he needs in order to help you. You have to try harder to fill up your biological brain with loving choices. The more loving choices you generate, the faster your candles will be relit, and the faster John will be able to heal you. Of course, you have to make real loving choices, not pseudo-loving ones, like the pretence you made about calling to cheer us up with the good news about Jack’s getting a job – that wasn’t a genuine loving choice. That was your ego circuit trying to keep going in the same old direction of not-love and not-trust that it’s so used to (again, the principle of inertia). Getting back to the analogy of the baseball, the baseball, as we've mentioned, has inertia. In other words, unless you apply a considerable force to it in deepest, darkest space, it will keep going in exactly the same direction it’s been going. Your brain circuits operate on exactly the same principle. They all use inertia as an energy-saving device. They’re designed that way – it’s more efficient. Once the brain is “sure” the circuit is “going in the right direction”, it ignores that circuit and assumes it will continue to go in the direction it’s “supposed” to go. Your brain won’t go back and look at the wiring of that circuit until your brain is convinced it’s made a mistake. And as you know, certain parts of your brain don’t like to admit to mistakes. Nonetheless, no matter how “stubborn” your anterior cingulate gyrus is, you have the power to override it. You have the will power that God gives every soul. You have the strength, the courage, and the inner love to override the stubbornness, the sulkiness, and the lack of trust that are the energy hallmark of the ego circuit. You simply make yourself do it. When you hear one part of your brain get sulky and stubborn, you instantly get ruthless with that part of your brain. You cut off the thought, or even the partial thought. You forgive yourself instantly for having had the thought, because you trust that your true soul self wouldn’t have thought such an unloving thought. You also instantly apologize to John for the unloving thought – no excuses. None whatsoever. I have found, in my own experience, that if I allowed even a hint of an excuse into my apology, for instance, “I’m sorry I said that, but I’m just so tired” or “I wouldn’t have said that if I weren’t so stressed out about the money” the apology doesn’t “work” at an energy level. If the thoughts and words are unloving, there is not an excuse in the universe that will work. Not one. Ever. Got that? No excuses ever. No “but I had a good reason for my unloving thought’. No pseudo-explanations to yourself or to John. Ever. Just an honest, forthright, courageous apology: “I’m sorry, John. I apologize. Will you forgive me?” This is all you should ever be saying to a member of the God Team. You have to be constantly on the watch for the unloving thoughts of your ingrained ego circuit. The instant you hear them pop into your head, you must take action. You can’t wait for John to tell you it’s okay or it’s not okay. You must decide. You are in charge. To tap into the good energy, it must be YOUR CHOICE, NOT JOHN’S, for you to ruthlessly cut off those thoughts and REPLACE the unloving, interference-causing energy with the good energy. If you spend hours talking to John about what you should do, and journaling with John about what you should do, you’ve given your brain hours worth of crap energy that John then has to deal with. There’s only one valid choice, and you shouldn’t need anybody else to coax you into doing the right thing. Just do it -- apologize fast, apologize “clean” (i.e. no excuses). The ball’s in your court. (Couldn’t resist the pun.) You forgive yourself FIRST. You apologize to John FIRST. Then, if you’re sure you’re in control of your emotions and are not still feeling sorry for yourself, you can discuss the issue with John in an objective, more formal way – like a dedicated student talking to a teacher and trying to learn more about what was happening in your brain. We hope we’ve explained this complicated subject clearly. If we can expand on any points, please let us know. We’d be more than happy to elaborate. Elaboration is our specialty. From your tough love friends who love you and believe in your true soul self. Love Jen and Tom

P.S. Please feel free to share our posts without fear that we'll come back and sue you for copyright violation. The God Team really isn't into the whole idea that one person can own the rights to the Truth. As long as you're honest and tell people where you got this information, we'll be happy. The best thing to do is to reference this thread on the website. Thanks. Love Jen and Jesus April 27, 2005

Shocked and appalled. That's what many of you are feeling -- shocked and appalled at my presumption in saying Jesus is a drug user. Go back and read The Four Minute Space again if that was your initial reaction. I did not say Jesus is a drug user. I said there's an injection needle on the bench behind me. Did you make the assumption the needle is a "bad" needle, something to be used in a negative way? Or did you stop and ask yourself if there's another way to see the needle? A positive way to see the needle? A sudden recognition that nurses and doctors (and other health care professionals) use needles all the time in their healing work? Did you take the time to remember that Jesus the man was a healer in his time -- a man who others trusted to provide compassionate care to physically ill and mentally ill women, men, and children? A man who understood mental illness for what it was, and didn't degrade those suffering from schizophrenia and depression with talk of demons? A man who rejected conventional medical treatments of the time, and instead asked God for advice on how to treat patients because he so trusted his angelic guidance? A man who understood that good science and strong faith are one and the same thing? A man who didn't waste his time trying to balance the four elements and the four humours, or casting astrological charts, or visiting oracles, or making sacrifices at the Temple, but who instead got his butt in gear and asked God for direct guidance on how to make practical medicines out of everyday plants and mineral substances? Now we're talkin' miracles. Music is one of the best medicines around as long as the music is joyful, upbeat, and emotionally positive. So I sang while I healed. Hey -- you use what God gives you, and I had a strong, clear, tenor voice. So I used it. I made up songs as I went along. Improv. I made jokes (positive, innocent jokes, not cutting jokes), and got people laughing. More improv. I spontaneously hugged people. Improv yet again. And I knew how to keep my dick in my pants. People trusted me because they could feel at a deep emotional level that I had no sexual interest in anyone but my wife. Monogamous to the core, that was me. She's the reason my hair is long. She likes it that way, and I love to make her happy. Nothing wrong with that, as long as it's okay with me, too. And it is. Strong marriages are built on mutual respect, unfailing sexual fidelity, clear and open communication, a desire to make your partner feel cherished and appreciated, and a deep, heartfelt instinct that binds you so close together that sometimes you know what your partner is feeling even before he or she knows. It's about being there for each other at all levels -- emotional, spiritual, sexual, and intellectual -- to the best of your ability. It's about trust. And having the courage to choose what's right not only for you but for your partner. It's about feeling grateful for the love and respect you find in your partner's heart, even though she or he can't do everything. It's about devotion. Such is the relationship shared by God the Mother and God the Father with each other. Such is the relationship I share with my eternal soulmate. Such is the relationship you share with your special someone. True love transcends everything. Everything. Until true love was found by God the Mother and God the Father, there was no universe as we currently perceive it. There was nothing but semi-raw consciousness, semi-formed beings who, long before the Big Bang took place (13 to 14 billion years ago), existed in a state of pure survival -- very much a Darwinian state of survival of the fittest. It wasn't pretty. There was pain. And power. And a very weird kind of hierarchy in the energy. Not to mention a kind of fear that's impossible for 4-D angels to understand. And absolutely nothing resembling love. Or courage. Or trust. Long before the Big Bang, there really was no universe, no Creation held together by the pure thoughts and pure hearts of God the Mother and God the Father and the almost countless number of beautiful angels who now fill the Choir of Angels. So what changed? What brought order and harmony to the chaos that came before the Big Bang? True love. Laugh all you want, but when you stop laughing, think about this carefully. There's just no other explanation. There's no other explanation for all the energy that magically appeared over 13 billion years ago, no other explanation except for the possibility that somehow two very different beings got together and decided to pool their resources, to share their energy selflessly with each other, to stop using pain and power and hierarchy to "survive", and to forge a relationship with each other founded on, well, trust, courage, gratitude and devotion -- which all adds up to the feeling of love. The universe is founded on courageous choices made by two ancient beings who, though not originally perfect on their own, found perfection and completion in each other's hearts. There was one other crucial emotional commitment each made when divine love blossomed -- God the Mother and God the Father had to find the courage to forgive themselves. Not each other (which was easier) but themselves. Before the miracle of true love, each had caused harm on purpose. Each had chosen to add to the pain of the chaos they existed in. Each could remember that pain. So each had to find the courage within to know forgiveness of the self. Each had to find a way to live compassionately with the memory of the pain without ever repeating the choices that led to that pain. This is what forgiveness feels like. When two people come together in true love, miracles happen. So I guess you could say the very first miracle was the sudden realization on the part of two ancient beings that if they chose to forgive themselves and each other for the harm they once tried to cause, if they chose to honour each other's strengths with respect and gratitude, and if they tried with all their might to make each other happy (instead of miserable), neither would ever know fear or loneliness again. Together, they found joy. Innocence. Healing. Hope. Humbleness. Bliss. And a profound need to give life to new souls, angels created with innocent and humble love by a Mother and Father whose love is eternally humble and innocent. (That would be you!) You're here as a soul-in-human-form to try to get an emotional understanding of that very first miracle -- the transformation from pain to pure love. But there's such a thing as too much pain as a human being. If you're tired of the pain, and you want to make the world you currently live in more loving, then follow the example of God the Father and God the Mother, and make new choices. Make the choice to always choose Trust, Courage, Gratitude, and Devotion instead of pain, power, and loneliness. Live in the Christ Zone. Be the angel you really are -- that you've always been. Be your best self. We, the angels, believe in the amazing being you really are. Jen and I are signing off. We have another project to work on for the time being. Good luck, and remember to keep the glass half full. Love always, Jen and Jesus April 27, 2005

THE FOUR MINUTE SPACE One day, the Pope is having a bath, and he decides to turn the radio on. He bumps the radio by mistake, and it falls into the bathtub. The Pope is hit by the electric charge, and his heart stops. He's technically dead, but his heart is in good physical shape, so if he's resuscitated in the next four minutes, he'll be fine. God steps into the four minute space. As the Pope starts to float out of his body, an angel appears. The Pope is surprised. It isn't what he expected it would be. For one thing, the angel is a woman. But you can't argue with God, so the Pope goes to Heaven, hand in hand with the angel. When he gets there, he's even more surprised. The people in Heaven look eerily like the ordinary people he left behind on Earth. They're all walking around, making jokes, hugging each other, and not taking life too seriously. "This is not right," murmurs the Pope. "The Heavens should be filled with souls devoutly begging to be let into the higher echelons of perfection. Where is Jesus? He should be here to meet me. I'm his messenger. I've been the most sacred keeper of His truth there could be. Surely he'll come to thank me." The angel smiles. She says to him, "This is your four minute spiritual wake up call, John." John? The Pope huffs a bit indignantly at the angel's informality. "There's a room over there," the angel continues graciously. "Twenty souls are waiting for you. They've volunteered to teach you more about the Truth. These twenty souls will look like the ordinary people you left behind on Earth. That's because souls are always themselves, whether they're in Heaven or on Earth. It's important to understand that all twenty are perfect. That's the only way God makes them." The angel pats the Pope on the shoulder and looks at him with a smile of deep friendship. "John, one of those twenty souls is the soul who once lived as the man Jesus. Your task is to identify that soul. That's all you have to do. If you're right, we'll send you back to Earth and kick-start your heart. You'll remember all you've learned here, and then you can teach it to everyone who's turning to Heaven for help. If you make the wrong choice, welcome Home, my friend. It's time to stay with the angels." The Pope is a little confused at first. He says, "So if I'm right, then you'll send me back and let me tell people what I saw, and if I'm wrong, then my human life is over?" The angel nods. The Pope looks around at the people moving past. They all look . . . happy. Really, really happy. That might be nice, to be happy. He thinks about all the people he's left behind. He thinks of the pain, the loneliness, the unanswered prayers. It would be a great privilege to take the Truth back to Earth, and help relieve the suffering. Either way, though, he's going to be happy. This is a win-win situation for him. He feels tremendous pride that God has blessed him with this golden opportunity to prove once and for all that he's been right. The more he thinks about it, the more certain he is that he'll know Jesus the moment he sees him. What a ridiculously easy task! "I only have a few minutes," the Pope says, "so let's get on with it." The angel winks. "Time has a funny way of stretching here when we need it to." Inside the room, the Pope is shocked. He recognizes some of the people from photos and portraits in history books. Hitler is here! Hitler has no right to be in the same room as Jesus. He . . . he . . . The Pope looks frantically at a group of smiling men and women. Women? There's no way Jesus could have been a woman. How ludicrous. The Pope counts up the women. There are eight. He immediately crosses them off the list. He also crosses Hitler off the list. That leaves eleven men. As he does this, one of the women stands and puts on a white head scarf with blue stripes. Uh oh! It's Mother Teresa! He didn't recognize her at first. Well, at least she's worthy to be in the same room as Jesus. He nods perfunctorily at her, then quickly scans the remaining men. The first thing he notices is that three of them are black. A trick, maybe? The Pope is wary now. He mustn't be foolish enough to dismiss anyone on the basis of race. Jesus might be one of the black men. He sizes each one up. One of the three is Martin Luther King, Jr. The Pope feels proud he hasn't fallen into the race trap. Yes, he can concede that Martin Luther King might be Jesus. The next black man is someone he doesn't know. He looks like a salesman or an office clerk. He's wearing a simple blue suit, and holds a book in his hand. His smile is kind, like the smile of a father who loves his family. Could be . . . Beside him sits the third black man. This man has inner city punk written all over him – baggy clothes, gang tattoos, multiple piercings. The Pope shakes his head. No way. This man can't be the Lord Jesus who died to save us all. But at least the punk isn't as bad as the man seated next to him. He looks like a rock star from the cover of Rolling Stone – all long hair and black leather. There's a guitar on the floor next to him, and an injection needle thrown on the bench beside him. And they let these people into Heaven, the Pope thinks in disgust. He turns his attention to the other men. With a start of recognition, he sees Yasser Arafat. Then Albert Einstein. Good grief, this task is impossible. A thin, elderly Asian man sits curled up in the lotus position on the bench. He seems exceedingly calm, peaceful, accepting. There are people who say that Jesus went to the East before he started his Ministry. Maybe this holy man is Jesus? Beside him, a bigger-than-life Genghis Khan. That's laughable. Now for the last three. The Pope is sweating a bit. But he's still confident he can recognize Jesus if he goes past the surface appearance. Obviously, there's no one in this room who fits the standard description of a simple Jewish carpenter in a homespun robe. The last three men are standing side by side. They look him directly in the eye as his equals. The Pope nods with approval. Yes, Jesus would be standing. That makes a lot of sense. He takes a deep breath, and steadily measures them one by one. First, a Native North American. Strong, simply attired, confident that he and the Earth are one. The Pope feels a little queasy. He'd hate to have to go back to Earth and tell people the tree huggers are right. Next, a dark complexioned man, probably from southern India. He's wearing homespun! He holds a plate, and on the plate is a simple meal of rice, potatoes, and lentils. Yet at his feet lies a bag, and gold coins spill out of it. This man can afford to eat whatever he pleases, yet he chose a simple, humble meal. Just as the Lord Jesus would have done. The Pope almost says, "This is Jesus," but he stops himself, and turns to the last man. Here stands an Australian Aboriginal. He leans on a stick, wears only a loincloth, and grins as broad a smile as the Pope has ever seen. The Pope can sense the love this man feels for all Creation. He lives the way Jesus taught, with utter simplicity. This man makes the Pope feel grateful he's come to Heaven. Now he understands. He's being shown that the trappings of human life are the source of all temptation, sin, and suffering. The ascetics of the past were right. The Truth means you have to give away all wealth, all comfort, and live in the world with nothing, just as Jesus once did. He's immensely proud he's figured out the truth. When he returns to Earth, he's going to give away all the wealth of the Church, and commit himself to the One Righteous Path. Without hesitation, he says to the angel who's accompanied him, "This man is Jesus. I've found my Lord Saviour, and I'm ready to carry on with the service you honour me with." The angel gently chuckles. "I love you, old friend," she says. "Come on," she smiles, taking his hand again as she did when she led him to Heaven. "It's time to get you reacquainted with your friends, the angels." "What?" The Pope is stunned. He can't believe he was wrong. "Then it must be Martin Luther King. Am I right? Do I get a second chance?" "Don't worry," the angel reassures him. "The truth is, any one of these souls has the power, the majesty, the perfection, the love to have lived as the teacher you call Jesus. Man or woman, young or old, any race, any religion. It's okay. I can't tell you how many visitors to Heaven miss the man who really did live as Jesus. Not that you'd recognize him if he were living on Earth today. He doesn't exactly come across as a holy man. But that's the fun of it!" The Pope is confused, but a wonderful thing is happening to him. His memory – his true memory of Love – is returning. He blinks, and looks at the twenty people in the room. One of them stands up, grins mischievously, and hugs him. "You!" says the Pope. Back on Earth, the Pope's assistant is getting worried. The Pontiff should have been out of the bathtub by now. He isn't responding to polite inquiries. The assistant calls for a physician, and without waiting for his arrival, steps apologetically into the room. It's too late. The Pope has been called Home. The assistant weeps to see the radio that has fallen into the water. How could such a thing have happened? He can't believe it. His grief overtakes him, and without thinking, he pulls the radio out of the water without unplugging it. Suddenly, his brain registers the danger in this. He drops the radio. It's useless anyway. The physician rushes in just then, and they're so busy attending to the Pope's lifeless form that neither notices the radio. It shouldn't be working, but it is. Rock music. From above, the Pope laughs as he finally gets the joke.

Jesus here. Words are cheap. From the point of view of your angelic friends on the Other Side (i.e. the 4th dimension) perhaps the greatest source of misery for human beings is your capacity to use words in ways that do not reflect the reality of the internal choices they're making. In other words, life sucks for billions of people on Planet Earth because so many people expend so much energy lying to themselves and lying to each other. Words are apparently so cheap that people will say just about anything to get themselves off the hook for problems they've caused on purpose. I emphasize I'm not interested in pointing fingers at the people who have accidentally caused harm, who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and who are genuinely horrified that their actions caused harm. I'm only interested in talking to you about the millions of people who tell outright lies so they don't have to take responsibility for the choices they've made. I'm talking about emotional abusers. As an angel, I have to listen to the cruel lies the Darwinian circuit of your brain concocts in order to "spare you" the hard work of making honest changes in your life. One of the biggest lies I hear in my work as an angel is this one: "As long as I say the right things in my prayers to God, everything is fine, and I'm doing the best I can possibly do. As long as I say I'm sorry in words, I'm off the hook as far as God is concerned -- I've made amends, and God and I are simpatico." In other words, the prayer acts as some sort of magical "fix-it" pill that absolves you of all responsibility to understand your internal motivations, your existing emotional choices, and the effect your choices have had on other people. The prayer acts as a magical messenger between you and God, allowing your reputedly inferior human thoughts to somehow be transferred into a dignified format that's acceptable to God. The prayer, naturally, takes the form of words -- "God, I did such-and-such, and I'm truly sorry. God, if only you'd send me someone who could love me, I'd be fine. God, if only you'd heal me of my affliction, I promise I'll dedicate my life to your service." Words, words, words. Most prayers are filled with excuses, with blame, with begging, and with false humility. It's hot air. It's bluster. It's filling up time with lots of impressive words like "love" and "compassion" and "loving my neighbour as myself" so you can tell yourself you're doing the best job you can possibly do as a human being. Meanwhile, as you're busily praying so you can get in good with God, you're still holding a grudge against your child because he/she accidentally broke a family heirloom, and you're not even making an effort to let go of the grudge. Not even a bit of an effort. You're not even trying to be your best self. Those who live in the Christ Zone know how to forgive, and they don't hold grudges. If you're not trying with all your might to at least understand what forgiveness might mean, you're not trying nearly as hard as God knows you can. God is in the trying, folks. Always has been, always will be. God isn't in the words. God isn't in the rules. God is in the trying, your trying to make the same kinds of choices the angels make (4-D angels, that is). God is in your trying to overcome adversity. God is in your trying to learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others. God is in your trying to always see the glass as half full rather than as half empty. God is in your trying to make lemonade out of lemons. God is in your trying as hard as you possibly can to plant the seeds of forgiveness and compassion in the world around you through your actions, not through your words. God is in your trying to put your money where your mouth is. Everyone who's human has at one time or another done something they can't live with, something that digs into their conscience. Everyone who's caused harm to someone on purpose knows how hard it is to look that someone in the eye -- right in the eye -- and be humble and honest and say "I'm sorry" without any excuses, qualifying statements, or "buts". That takes guts. That takes self honesty. That takes maturity. That takes a strong sense of personal responsibility, and a genuine desire to make things right between you and the person you harmed. If this is not the emotional attitude you cultivate in your relationship with God, you're not in the Christ Zone. People have the strangest idea that God doesn't have any feelings. They have the strangest belief they can say anything they want to God and it won't hurt God's heart. They believe they can ask God to forgive them for causing harm, and that it won't hurt God's heart if they don't really mean it. Of course God will forgive you anyway (whether you mean it or not) but that doesn't mean you haven't hurt the hearts of the angels who love you. When you're praying to God, you should be thinking about your relationship with God in the same way you should be thinking about the human beings you truly love whom you've harmed through your bad choices. You should be looking God in the eye. Just as you know you'll feel a whole lot better about yourself if you look your child in the eye and apologize from the heart for holding a grudge against him/her, so should you try to be as mature and honest as possible in your relationship with God. This means no whining, grovelling, or begging. There's no place in a mature heart for whining, grovelling, or begging. Just shoot for honesty, for self forgiveness, and for a desire not to make the same harmful mistakes again, and you'll be as much in the Christ Zone as it's possible to be. Thank you. Love Jesus April 26, 2005

In the April 20, 2005 edition of the Toronto Star, a front page story by Oakland Ross talked about the case of Brazilian friar Leonardo Boff, a promoter of social justice in the form of liberation theology. Boff ran afoul of Cardinal Ratzinger, then head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. By the time Ratzinger was finished with him, "Boff withdrew to the quiet of a Franciscan monastery outside Rio de Janiero, where a Brazilian bishop later sought him out and urged him to fight back, to launch an indictment against Ratzinger, charging the powerful German prelate with heresy. But Boff said no. He said he could never subject someone else to the sort of ordeal he'd just endured himself." Which of these two men was in the Christ Zone? Which of these two men had been listening to God's voice, had been trying to learn the most he possibly could from the painful conflict? Which of these two men "got it right" from the point of view of the God Team? Whatever mistakes Boff might have made along the way, he learned the most powerful lesson a human being can learn -- there are limits. There's a line that must never be crossed if you really want to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and like yourself. Living in the Christ Zone means learning to make choices based on what's right from the point of view of your soul and the angels, NOT what's right from the point of view of those human beings who've lost touch with the Truth. In this regard, the march of history is not a particularly good teacher of how to live in the Christ Zone. History books overflow with descriptions of so-called mighty heroes whom you're expected to revere and emulate, heroes like Alexander the Great, for example. I humbly suggest, however, that if you were to follow all the moral and military choices made by Alexander, you would not become the kind of person whom others would genuinely like. You would become, well, a psychopath, a person feared by others but not liked, not even a tiny little bit. You would become a person living out on the extremes of the Cross I described a few days ago, a person making all her or his choices from the Darwinian circuit of your brain. You would become little more than a brilliant computer program dedicated to "survival". In all likelihood, you'd be very "smart", very "shrewd", very "calculating". You might also acquire lots of money, power, notoriety. You'd have lots and lots of "stuff", but absolutely no one to love you (except God), because, when you get right down to it, who can love a computer program, no matter how handsome? Feed a cold, starve a fever. Feed the Darwinian circuit, starve the soul circuit. That's the basic choice Alexander the Great made. No matter how many times he felt stirrings of guilt within, he repressed the messages of his own soul. No matter how many times he woke up with nightmares, migraines, gastrointestinal pain, and pure panic, no matter how depressed he felt about the fact that nobody loved him, he repressed the messages of his soul circuit, and kept right on marching, burning, pillaging, and "conquering". He made a choice -- not a compassionate choice, but a choice nonetheless -- to lie to himself. He made a choice to tell himself that what he was doing was okay. How do I know? Because all addicts lie to themselves. All addicts give themselves permission to do whatever they need to do in order to get a high. Addicts remain addicts until they make the powerful choice to CHANGE. Many readers will understand from personal experience that making the choice to change, to admit you have a problem that only you can fix, is hard work, but it's the only certain path to peace. No one but you can give you the profound peace that comes from looking at yourself in the mirror and knowing deep in your gut that you're on the right page, that you're trying as hard as possible to be the best person you can be. No one but you has the courage to say "no" to the unloving thoughts that sometimes arise from the Darwinian circuit of your brain, to choose instead the wisdom of your own soul. Nobody who's gone through addiction withdrawal would say it's fast, easy, or even feasible without emotional support. Addiction withdrawal is a team effort. The person who's addicted takes responsibility for his/her need to change, and makes healthier choices with the emotional support of family, friends, and professionals. The recovering addict, whether he or she realizes it, is reprogramming the circuitry of the brain, literally starving out the selfish choices of the Darwinian circuit, and bolstering an under-nourished soul circuit. If the recovering addict is lucky, she or he will also ask God for help. She or he will realize that the task of literally rewiring the brain from the inside out seems a whole lot less daunting when you trust -- deeply, deeply trust -- that asking God to help you be your best self is the one prayer God always answers. Let me repeat: the one prayer that God always answers is your heartfelt request to be guided back to a remembrance of your best self. To be your best self is to live within the Christ Zone. To be your best self is to live with Courage, Trust, Devotion, and Gratitude. To be your best self is to so believe in the beauty and integrity of your own soul that you're willing, as a human being, to take personal responsibility for the choices you make. To be your best self is to learn, with God's help, where the line is, and vow not to cross it. Thank you. Love Jesus April 23, 2005

Hi friends. Jesus here. God giveth, and God taketh away. One door closes, and another door opens. God loves you so much that he gave his only begotten son to the end that whosoever believes in him should have everlasting life. Well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad. God absolutely, without question, has the intrinsic ability to shake things up in your life, to literally give you some new things, and take away other things. God always does this with the basic goal of helping you remember how to be your best self, to help you remember how to "close" the door on choices that don't help you reclaim your true angelic self, and to "open" the door on the positive, loving choices that are available to you at all times, should you so choose. God is always striving to help you remember that when it comes right down to the truth, you are and always will be a beautifully adored angel. God knows you'll never be happy as a soul-in-human-form until you figure out how to balance your 4-D emotional needs with your 3-D physical needs. God knows you'll never be happy as a human until you've figured out how to live within the Christ Zone. A loving God, you see, needs you to be healthy and happy. Not wants you to be healthy and happy -- needs you to be healthy and happy. A loving Mother and Father, who created you in a state of blessing and perfection as an angel, get just as upset as any loving human parents would get if you were to end up miserable, depressed, stressed out, and addicted. A loving God, the radiantly beautiful Mother and Father who gave you life as an angel, have big, big hearts filled with love and compassion. They have big, loving, tender, vulnerable hearts -- hearts so soft and tender they remind you of . . . well . . . the hearts of newborn babies. Each time you, as an angel, choose to incarnate (which isn't very often -- I've had only two lives as a human, the last one being as Jesus) God the Mother, God the Father, and the wonderful angels who love you as part of the Choir of Angels, pick you up and hug you and say from deep within their loving hearts, "Are you sure you're ready? You know how much this is gonna hurt, right?" And you nod and tell them from your heart that you really want and need to do this thing, this painful thing, because it teaches you so much about the wisdom of your Mother and Father -- but while you say it, you're sobbing, and they're sobbing, and, well, everybody's sobbing, but none of your angelic friends stop you from going because they TRUST you. They trust you. God trusts you. We, the angels, never give up on you as a human, no matter how many lousy choices you make, because we trust you. We trust the angel we love and know, the angel we've been loving and knowing since you first delighted God the Mother and God the Father with the infinitely loving person you are as an angel. You delight us not through worship, or obedience, but merely by being your genuinely gorgeous angelic self, filled with curiosity and eagerness and humbleness and joy -- like an innocent child. You delight us because you write such beautiful poems and sing such beautiful new songs, songs that nobody in all Creation could have written but you. You delight us because you ask the most amazing questions, and then go out to find the answers -- an angelic Indiana Jones. You delight us because you're such a kind person, and you're always thinking of ways to show us you love us, but -- and this is a huge "but" -- even better, from our point of view, you delight us because you let us show you how much you mean to us. You let us hug you. You let us tell you how proud we are of your loving, totally ingenuous heart. You let us love you. Thank you -- you have no idea what that means to us. I will not deny that from the point of view of the angels, not many people experience God this way while they're human. Angels spend a lot of time wincing, crying, and forgiving their friends who are souls-in-human-form, because some of the ideas that come out of the Darwinian circuit of your brain are breathtakingly cruel. We absolutely believe in your true soul self, and we know you'd never think, say, or do many of the things you do while human if you really understood what you were doing. We know you're not trying to hurt God's feelings, but I have to be honest here, and say that most of you are. Angels have big, big hearts. We get hurt. We cry. We sob, in fact. But while we're sobbing, we're still hanging onto you with all our might. We're still right beside you, right there to comfort you and encourage you. Angels are pretty grown up. We can deal with the pain you dish out, even while you attack God, judge God, demand things from God that nobody should demand, and, worst of all, refuse to believe in your true worth. To me, and to all other angels, that's the worst part. We cry hardest when you judge yourself as unworthy and unfit to be loved as a one-of-a-kind angel by God. When you're sitting with your journal going over and over all the reasons why think you don't deserve to be loved, or kneeling on the cold, hard floor in self-negating prayer, your very own guardian angel is a basketcase of sadness. Angels cry because they haven't given up on you the way you've given up on yourself. So when Lily claimed a couple of days ago that "most people DO try to be the best they can be already, or haven't you noticed?" I, as an angel, would have to disagree. Thank you. Love Jesus April 19, 2005

Jesus here. I'm picking up the pace here, and moving on to something fresh and new for those of you who are interested. First, I have to apologize up front, because yesterday I told you I didn't want to give you a long, boring lecture about brain function, and that still holds true -- but there's one piece of information I absolutely must share with you, because it really is "revealed", and I hope you'll find it helpful. In other words, unlike the other topics I mentioned yesterday (like history and quantum physics), which you can look up for yourself, this is one topic you can't look up for yourself because nobody else has written it yet. This is the God Team's freebie to researchers out there. Take this ball and run with it if you see merit in it, as I hope you will. This is the missing puzzle piece, as it were. The caveat is this: the God Team would greatly appreciate it if you would try to remember where this information originally came from -- straight from the God Team. Okay. For those of you who already have a lot of background in psychology and neurophysiology, please be patient. I'm trying to simplify. In 1970, the psychologist Abraham Maslow, who has been called the spiritual father of humanistic psychology, proposed two basic pyramids to try to describe basic human needs. The first pyramid has five distinct tiers. At the bottom lies the tier of physiological needs. Next, safety needs. Third, belonging and love needs. Fourth, self-esteem. And last, at the peak, what Maslow called the self-actualized state, which he felt could only be achieved if all the other needs had first been met. Maslow's research showed that few people achieve the self-actualized state. Maslow also recognized a second but equally important pyramid of human needs that consists of two tiers: first, the need for knowledge. Second, the need for understanding. Okay. This is pretty pivotal research as far as the God Team is concerned. Although Maslow was an aetheist himself, at least he had a positive, optimistic outlook on human nature, and believed it was possible for a person to find the courage to seek self-actualization. At least he understood that human beings really do need all the things he put in his two pyramids. Here's what he didn't know. Here's what no scientific researchers have been able to pin down. (Perhaps this will soon change?) There are two completely different but deeply intertwined neural circuits in your biological brain. One circuit is what I will call the Darwinian circuit. The other circuit is what I will call the soul circuit. Yup. Two completely different circuits, one relying on 3-D cues (that would be the Darwinian circuit) and the other relying on 4-D cues (that's the soul circuit). These two circuits are meant to complement each other, to mutually benefit each other, so that you might have the chance to find out, in your temporary human existence, what it feels like to combine the best of your 3-D human self with the best of your 4-D angelic self. The Darwinian circuit is what gives you the power to taste chocolate and enjoy it, since cacao trees don't grow in the 4th dimension (though don't despair if you're a chocaholic -- there are many things even better than chocolate on the Other Side). The soul circuit, on the other hand, is the place from which you draw the powerful emotion of gratitude, gratitude for the chance to have and enjoy the chocolate as a human. The Darwinian circuit is God's gift to you as a soul-in-human-form. The Darwinian circuit is the stuff in your DNA that gives your brain and body the tools to physically survive, the tools to meet what Maslow calls your "physiological needs" and your "safety needs". This is all very straightforward and increasingly well researched. The Darwinian circuit is the gift from God that allows your biological brain to remember the fact that if you put your hand in a fire, it will hurt. The Darwinian circuit is the gift from God that gives you physical senses so you can try to understand the environment you live in. The Darwinian circuit can be likened to an extremely sophisticated computer program that learns from its mistakes, and builds a body of logical, intellectual knowledge to help you meet your physiological needs and your safety needs. The Darwinian circuit (if it's operating the way God intends) reminds you to wear a coat when it's really cold, reminds you to eat when your brain and body need an input of protein, fats, and carbs. But that's all it's designed to do. It's not designed to even attempt to meet your other needs -- your need for "belonging and love", and your need for "self-esteem". Those needs are governed by the soul circuit in your biological brain. The soul circuit is the part of your brain that helps you monitor and improve your relationships, both your relationship with yourself and your relationships with others (including the God Team). The soul circuit helps you get to know other people, helps you care about other people, makes you cry when you see a Hallmark commercial. The soul circuit is a pared down version of your true 4-D self. (If we were talking in terms of electronics, the soul circuit is like a step-down transformer. It takes complex 4-D emotional energy, and translates it into 3-D biochemical energy, such as the neurotransmitter called oxytocin. Also, as a truly big hint to researchers out there, I'd took a much closer look at those glial cells that are holding the brain together. The cerebellum has a lot more in it than you realize, too. Plus the role of dopamine as a mediator between the two circuits needs to be examined. Guess at heart I'm a neurophysiologist.) Okay. I think you'll like the next part. Take a piece of paper, and draw a Celtic cross. (If you're not sure what this is, a Celtic cross is a cross with a large circle in the middle that cuts through all four arms of the cross.) Take the left-to-right axis of the Celtic cross, and label it the "Darwinian circuit". Now, label the top-to-bottom axis the "soul circuit". So what does that give you? It gives you a circle in the centre that combines the "energy", if you will, of both the Darwinian circuit and the soul circuit. This circle of combined energy is the Christ Zone. Your task, as a soul-in-human-form is to try to live your life somewhere inside the Christ Zone. You don't have to try to live on the eensie-teensie one-dimensional point that's dead-centre on the cross. Nobody can do that -- it just isn't possible in human form. You merely have to try to be in the Christ Zone, to try as hard as you can every day to understand what that means. If, however, you choose to live your life on the extremes of either circuit, either totally ignoring your legitimate soul needs for "belonging and love" as well as "self esteem", or totally ignoring the legitimate biological needs of your physical body, you will be both unhealthy and unhappy. I know. It sounds so simple, somebody must have figured out this precise equation long, long ago. Well, okay. You're not totally wrong there. I figured this out with a lot of angelic help when I lived as Jesus. Other thinkers have found it, too, but they're not as well remembered. So where does God fit into this picture? What's in this model for you as a spiritual person who longs to feel God's love deep in your heart, so deep that you always feel God's presence? This model is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. This model is the only certain route to a life filled with balanced joys, balanced pleasures, courageous service, beautiful and sustaining friendships with others, and ultimate trust that God the Mother and God the Father bless you every day, now and always. If you want to learn the basics of how to live in the Christ Zone, I look forward to teaching you with all the love and devotion you deserve. Thank you. Love Jesus April 17, 2005 P.S. I know I didn't get back to Maslow's second pyramid of "knowledge" and "understanding". But you've probably already figured out where I'm going to go with that.

Jesus here. Lily has suggested that God is as much in the rules as in the trying. Okay. Let's test that supposition. I, as an angel, together with my human partner, Jen, whom I've taken through an extensive educational program involving quantum physics, neurophysiology, philosophy, and history, are quite capable of giving you a list of God's "rules" to follow. I have ready at hand a detailed list of all the things a person "should" and "should not" do so you can find out what it means to combine the best of your 4-D angelic soul self with the best of your 3-D human self. I, together with Jen, am quite capable of giving you long, tedious lectures on the functioning of your biological brain and the way in which it intersects with your 4th dimensional soul energy. For instance, if you really insist, I can give you a list of TV shows that actually impair the ability of your human brain to function at its best. I can also give you long, boring lectures on food, substance use, sex, blah, blah, blah. I can painstakingly rip apart your false beliefs with a big, long, bulleted list of what is factually true about God, Jesus, and the angels, and what is not. But how would that make you feel? Would you feel encouraged to try harder, or would you feel discouraged at the prospect of so many new rules to keep track of? Would you feel loved, or would you feel controlled? Do you really want more tiresome rules from God? You already have the Bible. You can open it up almost anywhere and find rules, rules, rules. How do those rules make you, or anyone else, feel? There are people on this site who were raised in fundamentalist churches where everything was about the rules. How do those people feel? Suffocated? Anxious? Confused? Fearful of making their own wise choices? Maybe even afraid of a God who does nothing but lay down rules? Do you want a God who truly loves you, or do you want a God who controls you? You can't have it both ways. There is no such thing as unconditional love filled with conditions. This is the obvious truth. Do you want to be encouraged in learning how to be your best self, or is it just plain easier for you to follow a whole bunch of rules written thousands of years ago that make life temporarily easier, but which remove from you a real sense of personal responsibility for the choices you make? Do you want a Jesus who's bigger than you, better than you, more divine than you, who will take charge of your life so you don't have to? Or do you want a Jesus who will tell you the truth about how courageous you really are, how trusting you really are, how devoted you really are, how grateful you can really be? Because, again, you can't have it both ways. Someone -- anyone -- whether that someone be human or angel, either believes in you right to the core, in which case that someone believes in unconditional divine love, OR that someone places so many conditions on your suitability to be accepted by God that you always feel awful inside, no matter what you do. Do you want a loving God and a loving Jesus, or do you want a judgmental God and a judgmental Jesus? You will have to make that choice for yourself. As for me, I, the angel Jesus, am only capable of loving you as you really are as a soul. I am only capable of loving you unconditionally. Do not ask me to judge you, compare you to others (since comparison is the antithesis of unconditional love), and do not ever expect me to tell you that you or anyone else is "chosen", "called", or "special". God has no chosen people. Never did, never will. God the Mother, God the Father, and God the Choir of Angels love all souls equally. (P.S. - that's what I mean by the God Team.) Thank you. Love Jesus, April 16, 2005

Hi Lily and friends, Jesus here. Lily, you wrote this: You know? How can one argue with that? I'll tell ya how. It's not a core Christian message. Hmmmm . . . I suspect, Lily, that you didn't think this out as clearly as you might have before you posted this. That's okay. We have all days when our head gets a bit ahead of our heart. Lily, I don't think we're as far apart as you might believe. Do you think it's possible you and I (and hopefully others) can agree on one basic idea -- the idea that somehow, if only one can figure out how, the route to God is through the heart? Can we use that as a starting point, a place of mutual understanding? Using written language, as we're all trying to do on this site, is full of pitfalls that all of us have to be specially wary of. All of us use words in slightly different ways to mean slightly different things. I think, and I hope you'll agree, that we'll all learn much more from each other if we try to keep that reality in mind. If there's a phrase or idea a reader doesn't understand, maybe it's more beneficial if the reader asks without judgment or pre-assumptions. Clear communication between individuals, whether human or angel, takes time, patience, and a willingness to not jump to conclusions. Love Jesus April 16, 2005

Jesus here. A couple of days ago, I suggested to Jen that she go to see the film Sin City, currently playing in theatres. You might think this an odd suggestion from a guardian angel, since, if you've seen the trailers for this film, you know it's almost unrelenting in its dark vision. (Great cinematography and artistic direction, in my humble opinion, but that's just me.) And yet . . . this film is not about violence, for all that it's chock-a-block full of pedophilia, murder, vengeance, prostitution, and corruption. It's about one true hero, the police detective Hartigan, played by Bruce Willis. (I'm cutting out two thirds of the plotline here, but the part I want to talk about is the Hartigan character.) Hartigan is a cop with a conscience. That's pretty much it. That's the part that interests me as a guardian angel. Hartigan demonstrates continued and inspiring dedication to what is right, despite the personal cost to him. He simply refuses to be less than the man he's capable of being. There you have it. New revealed teachings from Jesus. Be the best self you can be. If I'm lucky, you're rolling your eyes, and saying to yourself, "Yeah, well, that's a no-brainer. Of course God expects me to be my best self and have a noble conscience. Of course it's all about doing the right thing. This isn't new. This isn't revealed. This is, well, just plain old common sense." And you would be right. So congratulations if you can watch a brutally violent film like Sin City and find hidden kernels of Truth that remind you that when you get right down to it, the spiritual path is only about being the best self you can be, despite hardships, difficult choices, and one hell of a lot of pain. If you can walk out of a movie like Sin Citywithout being filled with anger, a visceral desire to "get back" at the people who are causing incalculable harm, or a feeling that you've been personally violated by the images in the film, then you're doing exceedingly well. Congratulations. There's not much more that I or any other guardian angel can teach you. You're already in the zone. You're already walking around on Planet Earth doing the best you can to understand your own emotions and keep the love flowing throughout your mind and body despite the emotional pain around you. You're already in touch with the Kingdom within -- your own soul. Bear in mind one crucial fact: if you can watch a movie like Sin City and not feel the pain, if you can watch it and feel detached, if you can watch it and not really care, there's something very wrong. A state of detachment and emotional unconcern is not what I mean by being in the zone. Being in the zone means you're able to deal in a courageous manner with the pain, and turn to the power of forgiveness and divine love to help you cope. It means you're unflinchingly realistic about the painful realities of the world you live in, but at the same time you're infinitely compassionate. It means you know how to deal with intense emotional stress in a mature and self respecting fashion. It means you don't deny the emotional stress. You acknowledge the emotional stress, and deal with it wisely. You'll like the next part, too. What do I, as a quantum being/guardian angel recommend to you to help you deal wisely with your emotional stress? Am I about to suggest you abandon your life and run away to a mountain top to meditate for the next 20 years? Am I about to suggest you give away all your possessions and cultivate the self-denying ascetic lifestyle of some religious adherents, who follow strict dietary rules, engage in hours and hours of prayer each day, and, conditions permitting, stand under frigid waterfalls each time they think a "bad" thought? How about a game of Scrabble with your friends, instead of that half bowl of rice? How about a walk in the sun with someone you care deeply about? How about some great music -- rock music, pop music, who cares as long as the songs get you humming and tapping your foot? How about making love with the partner you've given your whole heart to? How about life? This is the non-negotiable Truth I want to talk to you about from the point of view of the angels. I don't want to talk philosophy -- pantheism, panentheism, who cares? I don't. I'm an angel, and I couldn't care less how you describe God. I only care that you get the core message right, that you believe in the beauty and integrity of the soul you were created with by God the Mother and God the Father. I only care that you try as hard as you can to be the best person you can be. Yes, I know it doesn't sound new. Baby, that's the whole point. That's what the God Team has been trying so very hard to tell you. God isn't in the rules. God is in the trying. You are in the trying. You are the most beautiful being this universe has ever seen, each and every one of you all at the same time, and by God it's time for you to believe in yourself. And in each other. Be the person of Courage, Trust, Gratitude, and Devotion your angelic friends know you to be. Now and always. Believe in yourself, as God does, and you'll find the wings of an angel are already pinned to your heart. Let yourself fly, baby. Let yourself fly. Love Jesus April 15, 2005

This is from Jen. Thank you, Lily. I appreciate your thoughts. We all have a lot to learn from each other. Love Jen

Lily, I would ask for a small measure of patience. I understand I've upset you (and several others), and I know you don't understand why this strange person is insisting on posting these messages. But please. Take a moment, and think with all the Trust and Courage that's your birthright as a soul. Did I really say or imply in my posts that you must "receive" my teachings without questioning or challenging them? Or is it possible you're assuming that my channel is like most other channellers out there who do refuse to take responsibility for what they say? Is it possible that you are the one who has made the assumptions, not I? Lily, the quantum process of channelling is difficult, complex, and very emotionally demanding. One thing Jen learned the hard way (and I really mean the hard way) is that she cannot channel information for which she has no existing mental framework. She knows that if she tries, she's likely to make false assumptions, and bring through information that doesn't fit the facts. She's very careful to stick with the framework I've taught her. The truth is, Lily, that Jen has no mental framework for knowing what you already know and what you don't. But she knows you made the incorrect assumptions that I implied angels are special emissaries and angels are from distant stars. She doesn't know what you know. She only knows what you say. I can only answer through her mind if her mind is able to understand my message. I know what you know, Lily, but Jen doesn't, so please don't ask for shows of spectacular psychic prowess from her along the lines of, "Well, if she's so smart, and she's talking to Jesus, she should know where I left my car keys." Channelling doesn't work that way. It never has, and never will. The people who make false claims about knowing things they can't possibly know do a lot of harm. They make life very difficult for the few legitimate channellers who understand the science and have the experience necessary to carry out their work ethically. Perhaps I confused you with my statement, "This is non-negotiable, folks." Fair enough. What did I mean? Did I mean you can't challenge me or question me? No. I mean that I have a Truth to tell, and I can't change some of the parts or all of the parts to prevent you or anyone else from experiencing emotional upset. I mean you can believe me or not believe me as you will, you can ask questions as often as you like and I'll do my best to answer in a way that will benefit as many readers as possible, but I will not lie to you. I will not do what other so-called spiritual teachers have done, and tell you what you want to hear merely so you'll like me. I don't need you to like me, Lily. But I'll confess that as an angel with a heart wide open (the natural state for all quantum beings) I'm certainly feeling the emotional pain that comes from being raked over the coals emotionally, not only by you, but by other readers. You've asked twice now how I conceive of God the Mother and God the Father. I'll gladly answer your question, if you'll bear with me and be just a little patient. I can't answer this question in one short post. Knowing the Mother and the Father is a deeply emotional experience, one born of the heart. Please let me answer in the way I feel is best. You can take that statement in a harsh, judgmental way if you choose, or you can give me the benefit of the doubt for a while and wait to see whether I can put my money where my mouth is. If I really am Jesus, I ought to be able to do that. Love Jesus April 15, 2005

Dear Lily, Jesus here. First, I am not a Gnostic. At the core of Gnostic belief lies a crippling, soul-destroying view of the universe as a place where Light and Dark vie for power. This is a view I cannot support. Second, you have perhaps read my post too hastily. You make a number of assumptions about my meaning. Since I don't want other readers to assume your interpretations are correct, I must rebut them. I honour the fact my creed doesn't resonate with you; each soul must find his or her way back to the truth. Please feel free to skip my postings in future. However, for those who are interested in hearing my channelled reply, I'll do my best to begin to convey more of the impossibly complex Truth that lies behind the world you currently live in. I chose the phrase "desert of pain" carefully. Those who work in the nitty gritty world of mental health care, prisons, shelters for abused persons, addiction treatment, poverty, and so on already face the day to day reality that emotional pain is a constant challenge for them and their clients. The God Team knows there are enough "light and love" messages already on the planet to sink the Titanic a thousand times over. There's no point at all in telling people the Truth from the angels' point of view if we, the angels, lie to you and tell you everything is all right when your current reality tells you it's not. So you won't be hearing a constant stream of "light and love" from me. My job, as a senior member of the angelic channelling team on the Other Side (Note: I use the phrase the Other Side metaphorically) is to help clear the very muddy waters of your understanding. I'm not going to pound you with the ol' sin and damnation b.s., but neither am I going to reassure you there's a quick way to find the core of your own Trust, Courage, Devotion, and Gratitude. Although you were born with these beautiful qualities, as all people are, you slowly lost track of what they meant as you grew up. If you disbelieve my statement, you need only turn on the evening news to see the stark reality of the desert of pain that's created when human beings make choices without understanding the depth and potential of their own divine Trust, Courage, Devotion, and Gratitude. Next, Lily, please give me an opportunity to define the term "angel". I use the term angel because for most people it has positive, poetic connotations. However, at no time did I say or imply that angels are special emissaries, or that angels come from some distant star. In fact, all souls (or all angels, if you prefer) originate in what some quantum physicists such as David Bohm call the Implicate Order. Souls are quantum beings. They have a complex energy signature, an energy signature that doesn't currently show up on scientific instruments -- though I hope you'll concede the point this means very little. A few years ago, no one could have imagined the invisible network of wireless communication that now crisscrosses the planet and allows you to check your e-mail on your Blackberry as you're walking down a city street. A few decades ago, this would have looked like magic, yet today it's understood as simple science that everyone takes for granted. So to say to me that because my angelic energy signature can't yet be measured is proof that I don't exist is, well, an argument you're not likely to win. Last, I certainly did mean to imply that "we come into this world rather than out of it, that our origins are elsewhere", as you wrote. That is exactly my point -- that as a soul, you were given birth by God the Mother AND God the Father within the implicate order that is best described by quantum physics. The implicate order implies a higher dimension, not a different star system. Mathematicians and physicists are already working out the scientific reality of higher dimensions, and this is what you must keep in mind when you're trying to imagine "where" heaven is. Heaven isn't "up". Heaven isn't somewhere on Betelgeuse. The metaphorical idea of heaven is an ancient attempt to try to express in conscious terms the divine love that filters through into your biological brain from the 4th dimensional aspect of your soul whether you want it to or not. When I taught as Jesus, I called that state of awareness "the kingdom within". Thank you. Love Jesus

Jesus here. For those of you who missed my posts in January, you can backtrack and read them. My partner's on-line name is Canajan, eh? Her real name is Jen. Jen isn't too happy with me at the moment. There's been a bit of a tug of war going on in our home. She poured out a lot of her heart back in January 05, and was dismayed by the response. She and I both agreed that until such a time as there was a TCPC member interested in hearing the honest truth from the God Team, we would no longer post. I've prompted her many times over the past few months to take a look at the site and see what kinds of questions are being asked. The right question hasn't yet appeared in print, but I know (from my angelic viewpoint) that someone reading this site is asking the right questions inside her/his heart. That someone is the one for whom I write. I will not reveal the identity of this person. So don't ask. If you like, you can assume it's you. Hey, you never know. You're probably wondering why, if no one has posted the right question yet, I would begin my discussion with FredP's quote. Well, that's because FredP has asked some good questions. Maybe not the perfect questions . . . yet. But good questions. Honest questions. Fair questions from the point of view of several billion exasperated guardian angels. Yes, Virginia, there really are guardian angels. It's going to take me a while to work my way through FredP's questions. I have a lot of background to fill in for you. I propose to begin a teaching course right on-line. Right on this site. Day by day, I'll introduce you to the true wonder you're a part of. I intend to drag you kicking and screaming back to the state of angelic joy in which you were created -- not by God the Father alone, but by God the Father and his eternal and very equal beloved, God the Mother. This is non-negotiable, folks. The truth about God is very much the truth about the romance of the Mother and the Father, the truth about why we, as angels and as humans, long for love, romance, relationship, and family ties in our lives. The truth about God is beathtakingly beautiful. That truth is what brought me to full realization of my Christ-like self 2,000 years ago. I prefer to say "Christ-like" to emphasize the fact that as a human, I was not the only Christ, but merely a Christ, one mortal man who achieved a state of divine remembrance and healing while still human. All human beings are born with Christ-like souls. The challenge for you in your human existence is to try as hard as you can to understand this, to remember, if you will, what it means to be desperately loved by your eternal Mother and Father. This is a course on how to be a Concinnate Christian. "Concinnate" is the word I've chosen to help you distinguish my directly revealed 21st century teachings from anything that's been written about me before. This little-used word captures the essence of what it means to be Christ-like: to choose to blend the best of what it means to be an eternal angel (or soul) with the best of what it means to be a human being. A Concinnate Christian is one who lives and breathes according to this Creed: Through the infinite wisdom and love of the Mother and Father, a place called Earth has been created, one place among many in the universe, where souls might choose to test the limits of their Trust, Courage, Devotion, and Gratitude through a temporary state of harshness. In a desert of pain, we, as souls-in-human-form, have the power to plant the seeds of compassion and forgiveness that are the true fruit of the divine garden we call love. We, as souls-in-human-form are invited to explore the perilous path once walked by the Mother and the Father, the path that began long, long ago in pain, power, and loneliness, and was forever transformed into divine love by the Courage, Trust, Devotion, and Gratitude they found in each other's hearts. Amen. Love Jesus April 14, 2005

This is a message to everyone who's been reading these posts. You know, person to person, I don't get your reaction. I can understand your reluctance to believe me. I get that. Some weird chick from Canada pops up out of nowhere and starts posting messages channelled from Jesus. So when no one replied to the posts Jesus and I wrote, I thought, okay, it's just me. They're not ready for this. I have to prove myself. I'll be patient. But then God's Grace showed up. She wrote with heartrending candour and humour. But her messages aligned with mine -- her ingenuous words are infused with her belief that our relationship with God is based on equality, not subservience. You stonewalled her, too. So maybe it's not me. I've extended myself as far as I can while still being able to respect myself. Adios. Jen and Jesus

Hi Grace, This is from Jen. There's no emoticon for a "Hi 5" (High 5?), so I hope you can feel this one coming from me where you are. Jesus is so right. You totally rock. You blew me away with what you wrote. You're brave and funny and kind and honest. Really, really honest. You and I started from opposite directions. You started out angry, fearless, and willing to "dish it back" to God. I started out unworthy, grovelling, and submissive -- a frequent by-product of being raised as a Christian. Sadly, I recognize my original sense of grovelling in almost everybody else on this site. It looks as if, while you were growing up, Grace, you somehow missed the part about original sin -- being less worthy than God. I was confirmed in the Anglican church (Episcopalean) when I was an adult, and at the time, the church I attended was still using the Book of Common Prayer. (A few years ago, the Anglican church in Canada brought in a new, more inclusive guide to service that's called the Book of Alternate Services). In the Communion service of the old BCP, there's a part that's engraved in my brain. It goes: "We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy table, O Lord." Well . . . I believed this statement. I believed that God wanted me to get down on my knees and beg for forgiveness. That's what the Church and the Bible told me, after all. I thought I was supposed to believe them. Although I wasn't a regular attendee at church, and even though I didn't read the Bible at home, this core statement about my subservient relationship with God was almost unshakeable. My spiritual journey began with questions to God like, "God, I know I'm unworthy, and I know I've made terrible, unforgiveable mistakes, but if you can spare a few minutes, do you think it might be possible for you to show me a way to make it up to you -- if it wouldn't be too much trouble?" Humble was my middle name. As I've mentioned elsewhere, I didn't know at the beginning of my journey what God had in store for me, anymore than you knew what your God Guide had in store for you. For two years after I learned to channel my guardian angel, Tom (you know him as Jesus), I couldn't ditch this sense of unworthiness. I tried to dissolve my self identify. I gave away money, possessions, things that I imagined God wouldn't approve of. I made a total mess of my life. Meanwhile, Tom stood back and allowed me to experience the consequences of my choices. He didn't intervene with a miracle to help my financial situation. He didn't stop me from giving away possessions that had tremendous sentimental value to me. He didn't stop me when I got the ultra-ascetic notion that I should eat the humblest of plain food (unadorned rice, tofu, nuts, etc.) (see above -- "we are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy table.") He let me hang myself with my own beliefs so I could see how awful I felt. After two years, I woke up one day and realized there was something seriously wrong with this picture. I was doing everything I thought Jesus would have done (note -- Tom hadn't identified himself as Jesus yet). But my life sucked. Not only that, but I had to confess to myself that I absolutely loathed tofu and never wanted to consume another soya product again. A short while later, Tom dropped the Jesus bombshell on me. That began my real journey -- my journey into the heart of God. I was taught by Jesus (through a series of painful but pretty indispensable experiences) that the last thing God wants us to do is get down on our knees and worship. God wants us to understand what partnership, teamwork, mutual respect, and unconditional love really mean. As Kenny Rogers sang in The Gambler, "know when to hold, know when to fold." The church had taught me that the path to God meant "folding" -- giving in to a false belief that I wasn't worthy. Jesus taught me a different path -- the path of learning how to tell the difference between a hand that's a winner and a hand that's a loser. These days, I keep only the winning cards. Love Jen

Postscript from Jesus: Yo -- Grace. You rock. Keep posting. We need to hear how you did it. Love, the Big J